Mather & Co has been engaged to work on a visitor attraction, stadium tour, commercial hub, and retail offer for Gremio, all of which it expects to deliver by the end of the year.

The new Grêmio Arena stadium, in the city of Porto Alegre, is expected to open by the end of the year and is being designed by architects Plarq, which has offices in Brazil.

Both consultancies have been pitching together in Brazil, hoping to pick up work around the 2014 Fifa World Cup and Rio 2016 Olympics.

‘We now have our first toehold in a new market which presents a massive strategic opportunity given the World Cup and Olympics which are due to be staged in Brazil,’ says consultancy managing director Chris Mather.

Mather & Co says it is now ‘looking to start discussions with a further eight Brazilian clubs for similar projects’.